In many industrialized countries, the incidence of human obesity is ever increasing. Moreover, human obesity is a common and costly nutritional problem in the United States, Obesity is characterized clinically by the accumulation of fat tissue (at times this is referred to as body fat content).
In humans, obesity is usually defined as a body fat content greater than about 25% of the total weight for males, or greater than 30% of the total weight for females. Regardless of the cause of obesity, obesity is an ever present problem for Americans. But a fat content >18% for males and >22% for females can have untold consequences secondary to several mechanisms and disorders of metabolic function. For example, obesity can have a significant adverse impact on health care costs and provoke a higher risk of numerous illnesses, including heart attacks, strokes and diabetes.
Without being bound by theory, it is believed that obesity in humans results from an abnormal increase in white adipose tissue mass that occurs due to an increased number of adipocytes (hyperplasia) or from increased lipid mass (stored as triglycerides) accumulating in existing adipocytes. Obesity and the associated type 2 metabolic syndrome along with its clinical sequelae are among the major and the most rapidly increasing medical problems in America. However, to date, a lack of suitable adipocyte specific protein targets has unfortunately hampered progress in the development of effective therapeutic agents to combat the clinical sequelae of obesity.
Despite existing knowledge of the critical role of phospholipases and triglyceride lipases in adipocyte signaling, enhanced clinical methodology and research tools and research methods are highly needed for identifying useful drugs to treat obesity and over-weightness. It is highly desired to have technology based on the specific types of phospholipases and triglyceride lipases present in the adipocyte or their mechanisms of regulation and determine their natural substrates and roles in anabolic lipid metabolism, catabolic lipid metabolism or both (e.g. triglyceride cycling).
Additionally, a screening method and research tool is needed to identify useful drugs which can be used to reduce the fat level of a living mammal and/or to maintain the fat level at a predetermined level.